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Mass Effect thread

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Mass Effect thread

Post by rusty_shackleford »

Do you like Mass Effect? :scratch:
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

To get ME3TweaksModManager to work on linux you need to use "DOTNET_BUNDLE_EXTRACT_BASE_DIR" environment variable, e.g., "DOTNET_BUNDLE_EXTRACT_BASE_DIR=." or else it complains
ME3Tweaks Mod Manager
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Post by The_Mask »

I like Mass Effect 1, because it's Lovecraft in SPPPPAAAACE. I like the 2nd as a guilty pleasure. And I always play the 3rd one, because I just hate myself.
Just like Yves, I chase tales
rusty_shackleford wrote: October 28th, 2024, 07:36
Mediocre or bad games can still have parts that are good.
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Post by KnightoftheWind »

Soy Effect. Even in the original trilogy, white europeans are extinct. Replaced by mongrels that use technology to obtain more european looks and features. Earth is highly globalized and ruled by a Sci-Fi U.N. Anyone with even a hint of "nationalism", A.K.A anyone not wanting to associate with aliens, is treated as a MAGA-hat wearing Orange man-loving type.
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

KnightoftheWind wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 00:57
Soy Effect. Even in the original trilogy, white europeans are extinct. Replaced by mongrels that use technology to obtain more european looks and features. Earth is highly globalized and ruled by a Sci-Fi U.N. Anyone with even a hint of "nationalism", A.K.A anyone not wanting to associate with aliens, is treated as a MAGA-hat wearing Orange man-loving type.
Ashley in ME1 is one of the last times a 'conservative' character was treated fairly in video games though.
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Post by WhiteShark »

I really liked ME1, ME2 was storywise a downgrade but alright, and I didn't finish ME3. The setting was pretty unique and I generally liked the companions. I intend to replay the trilogy at some point.
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Post by The_Mask »

I always chuckle when people call Ashley racist. People have 0 reading comprehension. Also, she looks great.
Just like Yves, I chase tales
rusty_shackleford wrote: October 28th, 2024, 07:36
Mediocre or bad games can still have parts that are good.
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Post by Fargus »

I like ME2 the most firstly because i never really considered Mass Effect much of an rpg, in fact every game after the first is less of an rpg, but rather a cinematic action game with dialogues, and the action starting with the second game became really good, also the reason why i prefer to play as a soldier class with bullet time. Action in the first game felt really underwhelming.

And secondly because Mass Effect reminds me of Enterprise tv series which probably wasn't the most apprecitated Star Trek show but i enjoyed it a lot as a teen.

Mass Effect franchise is not the staple for RPG genre but as a guilty pleasure it's fun.
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Post by Fargus »

KnightoftheWind wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 00:57
Soy Effect. Even in the original trilogy, white europeans are extinct. Replaced by mongrels that use technology to obtain more european looks and features. Earth is highly globalized and ruled by a Sci-Fi U.N. Anyone with even a hint of "nationalism", A.K.A anyone not wanting to associate with aliens, is treated as a MAGA-hat wearing Orange man-loving type.
Sounds like pretty believable version of the future lol. Add everyone is a *** or ****** that uses tube to procreate on top of that and this is probably our ****** up future in a nutshell.
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

1>3>2

No, I don't need to clarify.
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Post by KnightoftheWind »

The graphics also aged like milk, frankly. It's hard to go back to that uncanny valley of PS3/X360 "realism", and it makes me wish the developers gave these games a more stylized look.
I'd say all three titles could use a remake, but we all know how that would turn out.
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Post by Fargus »

rusty_shackleford wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 01:16
1>3>2

No, I don't need to clarify.
You don't, but i'm curious. I understand it with ME1, but i would like to know why you like ME3 more than 2?
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

Fargus wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 01:20
rusty_shackleford wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 01:16
1>3>2

No, I don't need to clarify.
You don't, but i'm curious. I understand it with ME1, but i would like to know why you like ME3 more than 2?
Significantly better combat, better story.
You can point to ME3 having a bad ending, but it's not like GIANT MECHA SHEPARD is better. Essentially every major issue with the series was created by ME2, and ME3 ends up getting tarred with issues that were caused by trying to wrap up garbage from ME2.

You could cut out the entirety of ME2 and the story would be functionally identical.
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Post by The_Mask »

1 > 2 > 3
Just like Yves, I chase tales
rusty_shackleford wrote: October 28th, 2024, 07:36
Mediocre or bad games can still have parts that are good.
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Post by J1M »

rusty_shackleford wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 01:22
Fargus wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 01:20
rusty_shackleford wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 01:16
1>3>2

No, I don't need to clarify.
You don't, but i'm curious. I understand it with ME1, but i would like to know why you like ME3 more than 2?
Significantly better combat, better story.
You can point to ME3 having a bad ending, but it's not like GIANT MECHA SHEPARD is better. Essentially every major issue with the series was created by ME2, and ME3 ends up getting tarred with issues that were caused by trying to wrap up garbage from ME2.

You could cut out the entirety of ME2 and the story would be functionally identical.
Giant mech was a better boss fight than Marauder Shields.
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Post by wndrbr »

People tend to say that ME1 is like the startrekian masterpiece while ME3 is the worst thing ever, but I think quality-wise ME games aren't all that different, and each game has a significant amount of things that suck.

ME1 is mechanically horrible, and has **** sidequests.

ME2 abandons the last shreds of RPGness and just goes full shooter, it squanders everything that was good about ME1's setting, and worst of all - it has no plot. The game feels like a tv show where every episode is monster of the week.

ME3 fails to tie everything up in a satisfying manner, but that's largely because ME2 squandered all the plot hooks from ME1 and didn't introduce anything of worth as a middle part of a trilogy.

Didn't play Andromeda cuz it has the stupid Dragon Age Inquisition open world where you must clear bandit outposts and grind resource deposits. **** that.

It's funny how this series, despite being originally conceived as a trilogy, despite having the same protagonist and a persistent cast of characters, despite being made in a relatively short timespan by largely the same team of devs using the same engine and releasing on a single console generation, has so little internal consistency.
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

wndrbr wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 04:27
Didn't play Andromeda cuz it has the stupid Dragon Age Inquisition open world where you must clear bandit outposts and grind resource deposits. **** that.
It actually has a bunch of small/medium-ish open world areas with goals. TBH I thought I was a lot better than Inquisition, despite all the **** it gets and praise(???) Inquisition gets. From a gameplay perspective, it's decent enough. Frostbite shooty pooty does a lot of the heavy lifting though, because the core part of the game is just fun.
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Post by wndrbr »

KnightoftheWind wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 00:57
Soy Effect. Even in the original trilogy, white europeans are extinct. Replaced by mongrels that use technology to obtain more european looks and features. Earth is highly globalized and ruled by a Sci-Fi U.N. Anyone with even a hint of "nationalism", A.K.A anyone not wanting to associate with aliens, is treated as a MAGA-hat wearing Orange man-loving type.
Jacob (game's only black squadmate) has a deadbeat dad who abandoned his wife and kid, and who's been Cosbying women on an uninhabited planet for many years. Also Jacob is the only romancible squadmate who cheats on you in between games.
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Post by KnightoftheWind »

wndrbr wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 04:27
People tend to say that ME1 is like the startrekian masterpiece while ME3 is the worst thing ever, but I think quality-wise ME games aren't all that different, and each game has a significant amount of things that suck.

ME1 is mechanically horrible, and has **** sidequests.

ME2 abandons the last shreds of RPGness and just goes full shooter, it squanders everything that was good about ME1's setting, and worst of all - it has no plot. The game feels like a tv show where every episode is monster of the week.

ME3 fails to tie everything up in a satisfying manner, but that's largely because ME2 squandered all the plot hooks from ME1 and didn't introduce anything of worth as a middle part of a trilogy.

Didn't play Andromeda cuz it has the stupid Dragon Age Inquisition open world where you must clear bandit outposts and grind resource deposits. **** that.

It's funny how this series, despite being originally conceived as a trilogy, despite having the same protagonist and a persistent cast of characters, despite being made in a relatively short timespan by largely the same team of devs using the same engine and releasing on a single console generation, has so little internal consistency.
I feel that 2007 was the year that the gaming industry shifted from being Japanese-centric, to (((American/Hollywood)))-centric. Mass Effect was part of the new industry's attempt to be seen as "legitimate" in the eyes of the (((Entertainment elite))), alongside other juggernauts like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. That's why everything started becoming more cinematic and story-driven, with big budgets and expansive setpieces. Everything needed to be epic and at least 20 hours in length. That era ended in 2013 once the next-gen consoles hit and releases started getting more sparse and more focused on live service.

Mass Effect was charting new ground, as an epic Sci-fi video game. It couldn't have been easy working with all-new tech and under the asscrack of Electronic Arts, it's a miracle the game turned out playable IMO.
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

KnightoftheWind wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 04:44
I feel that 2007 was the year that the gaming industry shifted from being Japanese-centric, to (((American/Hollywood)))-centric. Mass Effect was part of the new industry's attempt to be seen as "legitimate" in the eyes of the (((Entertainment elite))), alongside other juggernauts like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. That's why everything started becoming more cinematic and story-driven, with big budgets and expansive setpieces. Everything needed to be epic and at least 20 hours in length. That era ended in 2013 once the next-gen consoles hit and releases started getting more sparse and more focused on live service.

Mass Effect was charting new ground, as an epic Sci-fi video game. It couldn't have been easy working with all-new tech and under the asscrack of Electronic Arts, it's a miracle the game turned out playable IMO.
genuinely reads like one of the neocon programs on fox news crying about mass effect around the time it released
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

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Post by KnightoftheWind »

rusty_shackleford wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 04:47
KnightoftheWind wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 04:44
I feel that 2007 was the year that the gaming industry shifted from being Japanese-centric, to (((American/Hollywood)))-centric. Mass Effect was part of the new industry's attempt to be seen as "legitimate" in the eyes of the (((Entertainment elite))), alongside other juggernauts like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. That's why everything started becoming more cinematic and story-driven, with big budgets and expansive setpieces. Everything needed to be epic and at least 20 hours in length. That era ended in 2013 once the next-gen consoles hit and releases started getting more sparse and more focused on live service.

Mass Effect was charting new ground, as an epic Sci-fi video game. It couldn't have been easy working with all-new tech and under the asscrack of Electronic Arts, it's a miracle the game turned out playable IMO.
genuinely reads like one of the neocon programs on fox news crying about mass effect around the time it released
"JEEZ MOM, LEAVE ME ALONE!. I just want to listen to Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana!, I CAN DO WHAT I WANT!!"

Well little Rusty, some things are bad for you and you shouldn't expose yourself to them. Give Fox News some credit here, at least there was some discussion about the slippery slope of video game nudity. Perhaps a non-issue given that pornography and hyper sexualized Hollywood films/shows exist, but it could have led to other games adopting these ideas just as those other mediums did. It's just aspect of the West's moral degredation. Did Mass Effect need these sex scenes?, no. Could the romance aspect be handled more tastefully?, of course.
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Post by Sweeper »

The first one was alright.
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Post by Atlantico »

rusty_shackleford wrote: May 2nd, 2023, 00:44
Do you like Mass Effect? :scratch:
Mass Effect is a masterpiece despite some glaring shortcomings, such as being a console game, and it is one of very few games that is larger than the sum of its parts.

One of the best RPGs ever made.

ME > MEA .. and well that's both Mass Effect games that exist and they're both great :smug:
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Post by maidenhaver »

No. I hated the tank, exploration, minerals, characters, aliens, combat, and plot. The character system was bare bones. The setting was bland and made even moreso by the overuse of prefab hallways. The ship's name, Normandy... its a ******* ww2 game. The first one has bad squad combat. The second one tries to be pop-a-mole. I don't remember the third one.
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Post by Tweed »

How can you maladroits like Mass Effect 3 at all? Mass Effect 2 was the last good one and it was fun working for Cerberus, even though planet scanning is the absolute worst thing in the history of minigames.
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Post by Nemesis »

I enjoyed the series. The first game will always be my favorite.
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Post by BosanskiSeljak »

TL;DR: ME1 is the only passable entry in the series

Mass Effect: Soft spot for this one. Was very young when it came out, played it with a console *** family member. Replayed it back when the re-master came out and finished it in 2 days, just hooked me in. Flawed gem in my eyes, despite the generic BioWare/Karpyshyn writing, typical ******** in dialog wheel choices (least problems of the series), horrible inventory management. Apart from the collection **** which is easily skippable, the side quests are actually pretty well done and have some nice branching choices. First time exploring the Citadel, discovering Vigil, etc. are still memorable. Overall pretty solid, no reason to actively hate it unless just being negative.

Mass Effect 2: Knew it was **** even as an 11 year old. My most hated because of how overrated it is. Too much to go into on it.

Mass Effect 3: Despite people spouting only the ending is truly **** (and that the DLC fixed it, jfl), the entire game is a trainwreck except for 1.5 missions. The DLC casuals nut over is just pure pandering fan service and I barely forced my way through it. Also, more world destruction in this game (just like in ME2)

Mass Effect: Andromeda: Literally could not get through more than 20 minutes of the unironically cringe dialogue before I put it down, never to pick it up again.
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Post by J1M »

Andromeda has nice environmental art. You can tell it was outsourced. :smug: